Hello all! I’m happy to say that my motivation has been strong and I’ve been grinding pretty hard for the last week or so. I put in just over 40 hours at the table, studied for four, meditated twice, and unfortunately didn’t run at all. I’ll be putting the $25 charity challenge back into effect for next week as my lack of discipline (particularly with running) is kind of ridiculous. I’ve put on almost 10 pounds since going full-time in poker, and while I’m nowhere near overweight, I’d like to be more fit than I currently am.

PLO Update

In terms of results, this week was pretty solid. I was fortunate enough to book a monster win in a 2-5 session, and also managed to book a few smallish PLO wins. I hadn’t been playing much PLO since my debut week as I’d been down-swinging pretty hard and didn’t want to open myself up to any additional variance at a time when my mental game wasn’t at its best. I’m beginning to feel more confident in PLO games, however, and am beginning to feel more comfortable deviating from the tight/nitty/limp-happy strategy I was using when I first started. I’m still learning and watching a lot of training videos on the game, and hopefully soon will feel competent enough to start buying in a deeper.

Trip to Columbus

I’m going down to Columbus for the weekend to visit some friends at school, so my usual weekend poker time will be limited. I’m talking with some of my friends about getting a home game that we used to play going, which would be a lot of fun. If that doesn’t happen, then I’ll probably make my way out to the Hollywood Casino to test the waters in their 2-5 game(s). For those who haven’t been following this blog, the games down there were really juicy when I was in town a couple months ago. I’ve been regularly following them on Bravo and it seems like they usually have at least 2-3 games going on weekends, so it’d be cool to check those out if I get the chance.

$120k in Black Jack

Unfortunately, I don’t have a hand or any kind of strategy to discuss with you all this week. Instead, I’m going to switch things up and tell one of the most memorable stories I’ve witnessed in the thousands of hours I’ve spent at Cleveland’s Jack Casino. The following took place on a Monday night at a 1-3 NL table:

I had just table changed and sat down at a new table and a pot was already brewing. I can’t recall how the action went exactly, but on the turn, the field had been thinned to a younger recreational player and a tatted-up, mid 50’s, angry white guy who had clearly been drinking. The board looked something like AxQd7d9x and the YRP bet/called a raise OOP. The river rolled off the 6 of diamonds, and the YRP jammed for like ½ pot into the AWG, who tank called before being shown the nuts (Ad8d). The AWG then let out a sarcastic, “Oh, you got there on me. Good hit buddy, keep on calling raises with that ace-rag and see where it gets ya.”

I hate when this kind of thing goes on, especially when the YRP played the hand pretty decently from what I had seen. It just creates a bad atmosphere and makes the game less fun, which IMO is -EV for everybody. The YRP looked somewhat confused and unsure of himself, and so I rose to his defense and responded, “What did you want him to do, fold top-pair and the nut flush draw?”

The AWG looked at me and I could tell a fuse had been lit and a bomb was about to go off. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, kid. I just got sucked out on but was trying congratulate my boy over there.”

I laughed, and he mimicked my laugh in a somewhat childish manner. “Really?” I asked. “Because it seemed like you were kind of upset and your tone was a bit sarcastic. It kinda felt like you were attacking him to me.” This most definitely happened, and the AWG knew he had been caught.

The AWG continued to deny it, and his hatred for me continued to grow deeper. He was throwing insults at me left and right. He was making fun of me for not being able to grow a beard, asking me about what kind of hair product I used (I don’t use any FWIW), calling me gay and insinuating that I’d hit on him, and lots of other BS needles. While I was definitely needling him back, I wasn’t insulted in the least, and was actually blatantly laughing in this dudes face. I’d never been attacked so hard at the table (and quite possibly in life) and was really amused at how angry this guy was getting. While all of this was going on, the AWG was pissing away money, and I was making sure he was well aware of it. With his last $100, I stacked him after he raise/called a 3bet OOP and proceeded to donk shove a Q84 flop only to show down the powerful 64o which lost to my pocket tens.

The AWG was pulling out his wallet to reload when he got a phone call from a buddy of his who was also apparently at the casino. “Hello?... Yea, I’m up in the poker room. Some fairy-kid just got lucky on me so… Wait… what? How much did you win!?... You won $120k!?”

At this point, the dealer, leaned over and whispered to me, “Do you think he ever is actually talking on the phone? No way can this be for real, he’s gotta just be trying to put on a show.”

“Yea, I was kinda thinking the same thing,” I replied. The AWG continued “talking” to his friend, and everybody at the table was just kind of looking around at each other with looks on their faces that said, “No fucking way is this dude serious.” He finally wrapped up the conversation with his buddy and told him to come upstairs to the poker room.

Five minutes went by, and sure enough, the AWG’s buddy makes his appearance. This dude was on a totally different level than the AWG in terms of his intoxication. He stumbled over to our table in the back with his Jack Casino Security escort, plowing over a table with some beers on it as if he hadn’t even noticed it was there. He was carrying a backpack, a black plastic bag, and a small clear plastic bag filled to the brim with bands of $10k stacks. There had to be at least $50 or $60k in the plastic bag alone, and he was waving it around like it was nothing. He also could have easily had more in the rest of his luggage. The YRP was smart enough to whip out his phone to get a cluctch-ass video of the chaos that ensued.

As soon as the AWG saw that his friend had been telling the truth, the celebrating and taunting began. “We’re going to the titty-bar mother fuckers!!!!! Suck my dick, we got 200 thousand right here!” He yelled at everybody. He then remembered me, his new arch nemesis, and began to single me out. “I can smell your pussy from all the way over here!” He screamed at me repeatedly.

I yelled back at him, “That’s not your money bro, you just pissed away $500 and we’ve only played 10 hands. You’ve got nothing to celebrate.” Mind you, I wasn’t saying any of this out of anger, I just feel compelled to hit back when somebody takes a swing at me. I was laughing the entire time. We continued to go back and forth for a few seconds when a floor person snuck up behind me out of nowhere.

“Stop talking. Now,” he told me in a very serious tone. He proceeded to tell the AWG and his friend that they were receiving a 24 hour ban and did his best to escort the two of them out as efficiently and quietly as possible.

It was amazing to me that the casino had even been allowing the AWG’s buddy to be playing high stakes blackjack given his intoxicated state. So much for “Responsible Gaming,” am I right? Sorry for the lack of strategy talk this week, but hopefully this story made up for it. It’s probably the most hilarious/crazy thing I’ve seen happen while on the clock, and I apologize if my writing/story telling skills didn’t do it justice. I’ll talk to you all next week. Until then, peace, much love, and thanks for reading!